Regret
by Lunar Xerneas
Summary: Sequel to Peace. With Kirby passed on, King Dedede must live up to his mistakes, and accept that sometimes, seemingly harmless pranks can have dire consequences.


It was a rainy day when it had happened.

King Dedede had only ordered a few monsters, just to mess with Kirby. Nothing but a little fun. A little fun never hurt anyone, right?

But when his highest knight returned, a soaked, bloody mess… the king knew that something in his silly little prank had gone terribly wrong.

"What?!" King Dedede, the supreme, self-appointed leader of Dreamland, clenched his fists at Waddle Doo's status report. "Meta Knight is injured?!"

Waddle Doo flinched heavily at his King's loud response to his report. "Y-yes, sir… the Waddle Dees found him collapsed near the entrance of the castle. He looks to have a broken wing, a big chunk of his mask is gone… and…"

"And what?! Speak!"

"He… had Kirby with him, sir. Unresponsive. Gravely wounded, sir."

The royal penguin frowned deeply, his eyes narrowing at the news. "How bad was it? Is Kirby okay?"

Waddle Doo looked very nervous, now. "U-uh…"

"Well?! What's wrong with Kirby?!"

"He's… um… dead, sir."

King Dedede felt his throat close in shock of those words. "...Run that by me again, Waddle Doo."

"Kirby… is dead, sir."

"Dead?" King Dedede paused for a moment before letting out an amused laugh. "That can't possibly be true! Kirby never dies! And I've tried, too! A little prank could never hurt, let alone kill the little guy!"

"S-sir, we checked his body, h-he seemed to have bled out from a massive wound on his s-side... he's d-dead."

"I refuse to believe these lies!" Dedede got up from his throne, pushing Waddle Doo aside. "I'll see for myself whether you're lying or not."

King Dedede stormed through the halls of the castle, looking for where Meta Knight and Kirby were. He was already tricked into thinking Kirby was dead once, he would not be fooled again!

This time, however, it wasn't a prank. It was all too real.

He had eventually found Meta Knight, surrounded by a few Waddle Dees. Waddle Doo was right; the knight was badly wounded. His mask was almost completely destroyed, so Dedede could see his face… which had a high resemblance to Kirby's.

"Move it, move it!" Dedede pushed the Waddle Dees away, getting a better look at Meta Knight. He was mostly patched up at this point, covered in various bandages and the like, though some of them were already soaking through with blood, specifically one on his left arm.

Right beside him was a very still Kirby.

King Dedede noticed right away that the child was very still. His face was deathly pale, and despite the horrid, still slightly bleeding gash across the side of his small body and the other various painful-looking wounds, he looked… peaceful. Almost happy, even.

The king reached down and shook Kirby's body a little bit. "Hey, kiddo. You okay?"

The child's body was cold.

"Kirby…?" King Dedede felt his heart drop to his stomach, and he shook him a little more. "Hey quit sleeping, will ya? That wound needs to be checked out."

No response.

"There's no point in trying, your majesty." King Dedede turned around and saw Waddle Doo walk up to him, giving him a solemn look.

Before Dedede could retort, he saw Sword and Blade come towards them, both of them freezing in shock at the scene.

"Mother of Nova…" Sword gasped out, moving King Dedede out of the way to kneel in front of Meta Knight, while Blade did the same with Kirby.

"Hey, you don't shove me!" Dedede snapped. "I was just trying to wake the kid up!"

The two knaves didn't respond, checking on Meta Knight and Kirby before Blade lifted his head and said:

"Kirby's dead. There's no waking up for him."

Those were the last words that King Dedede wanted to hear. But at that moment, he knew that he had made a mistake. The rain seemed to fall even heavier at that moment.

* * *

It had been two days since Kirby's death. It had not stopped raining.

King Dedede sat on his throne, alone, listening to the rain pound harshly against the walls of his castle, tapping his hands in a random rhythm out of boredom.

Escargon was out on a personal vacation to see his mother, so the snail would have no idea what had happened to Kirby and Meta Knight… King Dedede sighed in his loneliness and boredom.

"Your majesty?"

He didn't pay attention to the voice calling him. He focused on the rain falling. Was it really my fault that Kirby died? Maybe I ordered one too many monsters… I did go a little overboard…

"Your majesty? Meta Knight is awake, sir…"

Dedede looked up at those words, raising an eyebrow. "Really?"

Meta Knight had developed a fever due to his poor health, and according to Waddle Doo, wasn't recovering very well. He made reports of the knight being completely silent, not making a single sound, even when the Waddle Dees replaced his bandages or asked questions regarding the situation.

"Yes." Waddle Doo nodded. "He seemed to want to get up and move around… we stopped him, but-"

"I'll take it from here."

King Dedede tensed when he heard the familiar voice of Meta Knight. He looked behind Waddle Doo and saw none other than the knight himself. He still didn't have his mask, but he didn't seem to care.

What scared the king, though, was that his eyes were blood red.

Waddle Doo seemed to be scared too, and didn't say a single word, moving away from Meta Knight.

"I would like to speak with his _majesty_ ," Meta Knight seemed to spit out the last word. "In private."

Waddle Doo nervously nodded, quickly making his way out of the room.

King Dedede swallowed nervously. "H-hello, Meta Knight, why are you out of bed? You should be-"

"Recovering? I feel okay enough to talk to you, _your highness_." Once again, the knight seemed to spit out that last word. "In fact, I feel great."

"R-really? That's good…"

The smallest smirk appeared on his face. "And how about you? I'm sure you've been happy with how… _peaceful_ it's been, yes?"

King Dedede knew what the knight was implying. "If you think I'm happy with what happened, you're wrong."

The smirk turned into a hatred-filled scowl. "If never occurred to me that you… cared about Kirby, sire."

"Of course I did! I just… it was just…"

"Just _what_?" King Dedede noticed that the knight was growing angrier and more tense.

"It was just… a _prank_ , okay? I didn't think that those monsters would-"

"Well, they did, your majesty. And to be quite frank, I'm very… _very_ …" His eyes flickered between the red and a deep blue for a few moments before they turned a deep, hatred filled blood-red.

Within a blink of an eye, King Dedede was knocked out of his throne, his cheek cut open, and Meta Knight on top of him, pointing the blade of his sword, Galaxia, at his throat.

"G-g-get off of me, ya oversized blueberry!" King Dedede feared for his life, he was at the mercy of an enraged Meta Knight. His bat-like wings were flared open, which made him a lot scarier up close, despite his rather… cute face. King Dedede held his bleeding cheek, breathing heavily as the knight stared down at him, the pure hate in his eyes piercing through the penguin king like a red hot laser. Even with a face like Kirby's, Meta Knight was absolutely terrifying.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't slay you where you stand." Meta Knight growled. The cool, calm tone that was almost always in the knight's voice was gone, replaced with deep, dark hatred. It was as if the knight released a demon of his own, after many years of being held captive.

King Dedede was at a loss for words. He couldn't come up with a good enough answer as to why he didn't deserve death for his actions. "M-Meta Knight, I know you're angry at me, but I-"

"Answer my question, _fool_."

He swallowed thickly. "I… I've been planning a funeral for K-Kirby, Meta Knight… I am the lead planner, y-ya can't kill m-me!"

Meta Knight hesitated at those words. King Dedede noticed that the blade of Galaxia began to tremble, and the wielder's eyes flickered between the red and the deep blue once again.

"L-look, Meta Knight… I-I know I made a mistake-"

"-It was way more than just a _mistake_ -" Meta Knight's voice cracked, which the penguin king had never heard before.

"-B-but I'm trying to live up to my actions, o-okay?! Kirby's funeral i-is gonna be of royal proportions, as if it were my own funeral! I swear! _Please don't kill me!"_

Meta Knight's sword trembled at the king's throat for a few agonizingly long moments before drawing back. The anger in the knight's eyes slowly faded, replaced by the deep blue, which Dedede assumed was due to sadness.

"Meta Knight, I-I'm really sorry this happened, okay?" He grunted, sitting up as Meta Knight got off him, holding his cheek with a now blood-soaked glove. "It was all… a huge mistake. I never wanted this, I never wanted the kid to _die_! If I could go back, I-"

"I know."

King Dedede frowned deeply at Meta Knight's tone of voice, his heart aching. "I'm really sorry." Never before had King Dedede let himself go down to the mercy of anyone like this. He was always high and mighty! The king!

But at this moment, he felt lower than the poorest peasant. Lower than the dirt itself. He killed an innocent child. Whether it was an accident or not, _he still murdered a child._

"Sorry won't bring Kirby back." Meta Knight said, his voice losing all emotion. "Sorry won't reverse your actions."

"I-I know, Meta Knight. I… I didn't know the kid was this important to you."

"He was like a son to me." He said bluntly. "A son I'll never get back."

"W-well, I… I…" King Dedede was at a loss of words, but soon he had a good thing to say. "You know… I really liked the kid, too." He confessed. "A rival, someone to compete with, you know?"

"Then _why_ …?"

"I told you, it was supposed to be a prank. I didn't think this would happen… and I'm living up to my mistakes, okay? The kid's gonna go out with a bang, I _promise_ he'll always be remembered as long as I'm alive, ya hear?"

Meta Knight stared at him; King Dedede noticed that he was actually very expressive without his mask on, it was almost as if he were looking at a different person entirely.

"I hope you'll live up to that promise."

King Dedede nodded, hissing in pain as his wound began to sting. "Ow…"

"You might want to get that patched up." Meta Knight mumbled, the look on his face showing nothing but exhaustion.

"Y-yeah…" King Dedede swallowed thickly. "You should, um… get some rest. I want you to feel better for the funeral…"

The knight wordlessly nodded, closing his eyes tiredly as he wrapped himself in his cape.

"I'm sorry." Dedede repeated, trying to be as genuine as possible. He knew he messed up. He knew he made a mistake. He hoped and prayed that Meta Knight knew that.

The knight opened his eyes, which were still that dark blue. "...I know." He let out a very sad chuckle. "And… I'm sure Kirby knows, too."

Dedede nodded, his heart aching some more. "Y-yeah… he was a very nice kid. He was too young to die the way he did he didn't deserve it…" for the first time in a long time, King Dedede felt a burning sensation in his eyes. Tears. Genuine tears.

A faint light shone through the window, and King Dedede then noticed that it had stopped raining, and the sun was out.

King Dedede stood, walking over to the window to get a closer look. While there were still many dark clouds in the sky, the sun had peeked through, shining its light across the land.

And streaking across the sky, was a rainbow. One of the most beautiful he had ever seen in his life.

That was when the tears hit the king full force.

As the king wept, Meta Knight also looked out the window, the streak of colors giving him a sense of peace.

Even with Kirby gone, he could still feel the child's smile, stretching across the sky in a strand of color.


End file.
